The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.

Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.

This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.

The "War Powers Act of 1933" is a name given by some members of the militia and patriot movement to emergency banking legislation passed in 1933 five days after President Roosevelt came into office. It has apparently been so labeled by some because the banking legislation amended the "Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917" in order to give legal underpinning to President Roosevelt's efforts to cope with the banking crisis. It is alleged by its modern-day critics that by that amendment the government in effect declared war on the American people and began a reign of unconstitutional rule through President emergency powers. These allegations overlook the facts that the amendment of the Trading with the Enemy Act has subsequently been repealed, but the powers exercised pursuant to President Roosevelt's proclamation of national emergency have been terminated, and that the President's exercise of emergency powers is now regulated under the "National Emergencies Act."